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Saturday, February 13, 2016

A Band Apart

Standard Disclaimers: first, not this A Band Apart which is very cool, just not what I am talking about
Second: no Conures were harmed during the production of this Blog post, although one was inconvenienced...

Cappy, with Band no longer adorning his right leg

You ever see on a show, or in real life, Firemen using saws, axes hammers and the jaws of life to get someone out of where they are trapped? it looked a lot like that.

SEVERAL DAYS AGO...

Cappy starts messing with his band, moving it up, down, all around. he puts it down to the foot, up above the "elbow" joint, clearly not able to leave it where it is. It's still loose, not hampering him, but it's not play. He is bugged about it. his leg is showing some signs of irritation. I make the decision that when next the opportunity can be made, he is going to the bird store and it is getting removed.

TODAY

I put Cappy in his travel cage, cover it with an old shirt so he doesn't get drafts, and drive down to the store. We arrive at opening, so the owner has a few minutes of business before we can address Cappy's Band. Cappy and I wait patiently.

Cappy's Band was put on him when he was young, as is traditional with bred birds, and contains no useful info aside from that he came from Texas. I'm not going to miss it, and Cappy sure isn't going to. I open the door of his travel cage, but he's slightly freaked and not willing to exit it without encouragement.

The owner's assistant gets him in a towel, and the owner goes for tools.

What follows is three different cutters, culminating in a pair of Diagonal Cutters. This band appears to be made of rather than the Aluminum I suspected, some sort of Mithril/ Adamantium /Vibranium alloy (not Uru- now you're just being ridiculous) Now the band is split, but still won't open far enough to slide over his foot. You might pause at this point to wonder, how it got on there in the first place...here is some more info on that. Suffice to say, it was put on a smaller foot than he now posesses. So now comes the Pliers. Two Pair, the owners long needlenose and my Leatherman tool (never far from my side). All this to a soundtrack of panicked parrot in E-minor.

Forged in the Multi-tool Factories of Gondolin, or Possibly Asgard

The result was an unbanded parrot, some ruffled feathers and huge dark eyes telling me "It was the worst trauma EVER". I buy him shreddable toys and some ointment that is bird safe

We skipped wings and claws for another day. No one expected this removal to be quite so involved. Apparently breeder bands are bigger in texas...

I just need to drop this bitch in Mount Doom and it's evil will be destroyed...
the Band, not the Leatherman